The Definitive Guide to Getting Your Budget Approved!: Measure Intangibles to Calculate Your ROI Business Case

The Definitive Guide is a practical guide to the real world of Business Cases. Its focus are the necessities of building actual Business Cases, yet without cutting short on the theoretical background as far as it is needed. The described Business Case methodology is beneficial for case builders and decision-makers and assumes no prior background in finance or business planning.

For more than 15 years, Solution Matrix has helped thousands of business professionals in organizations like BMW, Cisco Systems Inc., Ericsson, SAP, and Siemens to understand the essentials of a Business Case and deliver Business Case results that score high in credibility, accuracy, and practical value. This book enables you to profit from their experience and specific Business Case method to get your budget approved.

The Definitive Guide has various advantages:

- 30 Case Studies from 10 different industries are enclosed
- The comprehensible method is applicable to any project
- A free 140 Days Trial Version of Crystal Ball© Oracle worth $360 is included
- You can start building your Business Case immediately, while reading the book
- It is an introduction for Business Case beginners and a handbook for those more experienced in building Business Cases

After having read the book you will know:

- the essentials of a strong Business Case
- how to prepare a Business Case scientifically
- how to calculate the Return on Investment (ROI) and other financial metrics
- how to measure even soft benefits of your project in monetary terms
- how to validate your results statistically
- how to present the Business Case convincingly to the decision-makers

Content:

By offering an easy example of an actual Business Case throughout, the book ensures that all parts of the method are understood profoundly. The book covers the entire process of building a solid Business Case step by step.

Part I - Influence Matrix: A tool for reducing the project’s complexity while grasping the most important components of the entire project in respect to the outcome which is to be measured: How to capture any complex project completely and yet structured enough so that the entire Business Case is valid, verifiable, and convincing.

Part II - Financial Model: The “core” of the Business Case is about more than just filling in the right numbers. How to build a structured financial model based on the Influence Matrix? How to structure it? Which data to use? From whom is data to be obtained in which form? How to fill it into the financial model?

Part III - Risk- and Sensitivity Analysis: Validating the numbers statistically is the key to a sound Business Case. Basic statistical knowledge that is necessary for building and interpreting a solid Business Case is given. What is the difference between risk and sensitivity analysis? How to run a risk and sensitivity analysis? How to interpret it?

The appendix includes a library of 30 Influence Matrices from 10 different industries. They offer direct practical guidance to similar projects you might be working on.

The 140 day trial version of Crystal Ball© Oracle which is needed for a substantial risk and sensitivity analysis allows you to complete your solid Business Case right away.

An extensive index makes this book not only a practical handbook for Business Case beginners but also for those who are already very experienced and wish to use it for checking specific details only.

Our companion publication, Building Return on Investment (ROI) and Business Case Analysis Video Training on DVD, provides a practical, step by step DVD training for Business Case builders and their organizations.

Johannes Ritter is Partner at Solution Matrix and is a leading authority on Business Case methodology. He has worked with some of the leading companies in 20 countries on the successful deployment of Business Cases. Johannes brings practical best practice techniques for modeling key business drivers, critical success factors, and business objectives on large, complex business projects. With a wide range of Business Case experience from simple 1 million Euro to complex 250 million Euro outsourcing contracts, Johannes has helped dozens of teams in banking, energy, insurance, IT, manufacturing, public sector, and telecommunications in making better investment decisions.

Frank Roettgers is a consultant with Solution Matrix, a consulting firm focused on Business Case Analysis tools, training, and resources for building the financial Business Case. Frank has worked with a wide range of functional groups from sales to IT to engineering on how to analyze, build, and present Business Cases with primarily qualitative benefits. Amongst others, he developed Business Cases for companies such as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Tesco, and SAS. Within the framework of these projects he measured soft benefits such as quality, image, innovation, return on health, and customer satisfaction.